It’s that time of year again when its my job to organise the annual CCA alpaca show. Last year it was a complete wash out so at least I haven’t had to buy any rosettes this year. I have been cautiously optimistic about the weather all week and plan to hold it outside in the field but the closer we get to Monday the more gloomy the forecasts are becoming. The show is being held at Grigg’s Country Store near St Austell and they have a very large barn which we will be able to dive into should it turn nasty. At 63 entries we have more  than last years washout and our bio-security arrangements are all in hand. It will be a lot easier if we are outside as I will be able to separate the pens by at least 4m which should keep animal health happy when they come visiting.

Fortunately the sun shone on a very chilly “Experience” day yesterday. We had a good turnout and I think it was one of the best groups we’ve had. Always a bit embarrassing when you’ve got kids and it comes to the reproduction section but there weren’t any awkward questions this time. We were all ready for Felicia’s lunch when the time came though and the alpacas behaved well. Only one stabbed finger this time.

Well its come and gone and I know we had decided not to attend this year but in the end changed our minds and exhibited and I must say I am very glad we did. Not only were our results tremendous but the event, though much smaller than previous years in number, was very well organised, very well attended and as per normal the alpacas themselves were the real stars. The seminars were worthwhile, I counted well over a hundred people at Dr Tibarys first lecture which covered the pretty concerning subject of early cria death but it was a relief to attend something where only facts were given.

Felicia did all the showing, she tends to present the alpacas in a better perspective. I tend to make them all look undernourished!! This works well as it allows me to flash the trusty Nikon around.

Infact the weekend got off to a cracking start when the trusty Nikon won Best in Show in the photography competition. The ‘alpaca and rhea’ entry was the big winner. I just wish I had thought of a better title now! Before you ask anything like ‘ how many entries were there?’ …….over 50 is the answer…..ha

The rest of the pictures are a precis of Felicia’s showing weekend and as you can see she even sought some divine help at one point and then when Gomez was given second she graciously gave thanks!!

A brief summary of our results are:

Cosmo was Brown Suri Male Champion

Equador was 2nd in the adult black male huacaya class Gomez was 2nd in the junior fawn male suri class

and probably the one that gave me the most pleasure was Joshua was 3rd in the very large intermediate white male huacaya class. He is a stunning male. It is always a pleasure when people come charging over after the class to have a look at the alpaca you have just shown.

I just love France, the pace of life, the countryside and the food. I’m not a great fan of their wine. Our trip was over in a flash and we’re back in rainy Cornwall. The show was a great success and the organisers, Marie-Geneive and her daughter Gaby of Alpagas Sologne deserve a round of applause. There were breeders from France, Switzerland, Belgium, Australia and us making up the entry number of about 110. Jill Macleod was judging the halter classes on the Saturday. This was followed by a wonderful and very festive french meal at a local restuarant ( four courses for 15 euros including wine) and then the fleeces were judged on the Sunday whilst there was a talk by a local vet on alpaca dentistry. The big huacaya prize was won by the Belgium breeder, Alpacas Flanders with a very smart imported animal from New Zealand. The suri prize was won by French breeder Linda Hitchcock of Utopian Alpacas with their own bred fawn suri male who would take some beating in the UK. Our stud male Popham Columbus won the senior white hucaya class and our suri girl French Lass won her class. French Lad didn’t fair so well. We were very pleased also with an Alamo girl belonging to Jayne and Steve of Quelvehin Alpacas who won the junior white female huacaya. They also did well with their black male Atlas winning the reserve black championship.

I am not so keen on the French fashion of shearing their alpacas with the poodle cut as you will see in some of the pictures.

There can’t be many alpacas that have achieved that but our light fawn suri girl Popham Finesse (Inca Matador) managed just that. Firstly she cracked North Devon on Wednesday and then Honiton on Thursday. Ferren won the brown huacaya championships at both shows as well. I didn’t get to North Devon as I had to work so Felicia and Jan took the team up in the mud. They had to be towed in but it remained dry during the day. The best thing about the day was collecting all the money!! What a lovely show. My daughter Victoria and I did the Honiton show. She looked much better in the ring than I would have done, not that this would have swayed Ian Waldron’s decisions in any way whatsoever. Never crossed my mind….honest!!

You could be excused for being a bit confused on Saturday at the Devon County Show. According to the catalogue Saturday should have been white huacaya day but first impressions of the alpacas in the ring would have indicated grey animals. This was because on the Friday we were just covered in soot from the steam engines next door. Fortunately Health and safety officials did something I approved of for once and moved them further away.

Apart from that it was a great show made all the more fantastic by the showing of the Popham team. One Championship and three reserves. Not bad when you consider that Alpaca Stud, Classical and Langaton were all there. We were very pleased with Emma and Finesse winning the Champion and reserve in the fawn female suris and little Joshua, at 12 months and 3 days winning Intermediate white huacaya and then taking reserve white male, beating some pretty big names including last years Bath & West supreme winner.

Roll on the next show……

Plans are underway for the preparation of the Popham show team for Devon county and in usual Popham fashion we have entered more than we can fit in the trailer. So some hasty calls have been made and hopefully we are going to get a special permit to make about three deliveries. Meanwhile some of the show team have become so over fleeced that the wet weather has caused them to mat up and you have to rip their fleeces open. These few will be scratched making our travelling arrangements easier anyway. I’m really going to have to improve my fleece management this year and shear the show team much later and seriously look at what all the big breeders seem to be doing…..the dreaded cria shearing.

Anyway back to the show and we are expecting a good showing in the suris from Flinstone and Emma and hopefully some good results from Storm and CoCo in the huacayas. Joshua has just turned one year old so has to move up into intermediate and is taking on the big guns there including, I expect, last years overall winner Paris from Classical Alpacas. Oh well you don’t know how good you are till you beat them.

So watch this space nad I’ll let you know how the Popham team do. If the blog is quiet for a while you can probably safely guess we didn’t do too well!!

Well here it is folks, the information you’ve been waiting for.

Our new mobile mating service swings into action shortly ….

We returned last night, exhausted but very pleased with our performance at the Swag show. 420 alpacas, all the big breeders and numerous smaller breeders, some I’ve never met before. We managed six rosettes from our twelve entries. The three results that really pleased us were our huacaya juniors. Storm, our Little Legend boy, getting third in the Junior fawn huacaya, Joshua also came third in the Junior white huacaya and then Coco came home with a fourth in the junior fawn female. These were massive classes and we were surrounded by all the big names and to see them further down in the line-up when the prizes were given was very satisfying. Our suris also did very well. Eva came second in the intermediate white suri. Emma won Intermediate Suri fawn female even though her behavior in the ring was appalling. Fatima won coloured female suri junior.

The show went very well, the organisation was terrific and I feel the Swag committee deserve a round of applause.

It’s not often I use this blog to advertise but after our tremendous success I shall be bringing you details of new mobile mating service in the next posting so watch this space.

What a day. Why is nothing ever simple. I set off to collect Camouflage from Reddingvale Alpacas at Templecombe at lunch time. In my trailer I had three females which were being returned to Tim Hey at Moonsbrook Alpacas. All was going well, Dogo and I were enjoying the countryside when bang!! my vehicle packed up in a cloud of smoke. I’ve a small amount of knowledge in mechanics to know when “you’ve done a big-end”. I won’t say panic ensued but there was a large amount of hair pulling and swearing to say the least.

To cut a long story short, the RAC collected my car and have taken it to the garage and a knight in shining armour, in the form of Phil from Hatt Service Centre, came charging up the A38 and collected me, the alpacas and trailer (and Dogo) and we continued on our journey.

I must say I was very nervous about first seeing Camouflage today. We first chose him nearly 18 months ago but as soon I saw him in the pen with the two black males which Viv and Andy Walker of Reddingvale Alpacas have imported I felt “he looks a good ‘un”. Thank you to Viv and Andy for bringing him down.

Anyway he is home now and Felicia still beside herself with excitement. I bet she’s up at dawn to go and check on him.